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New York City - Mayor Bloomberg signed Councilman Felder’s parking meter bill into law yesterday. The new law will clarify the rules for parking at a broken parking meter. Currently, New York City traffic rules create a confusing scheme where drivers can park at a missing meter up to the amount of time normally allowed at that parking zone, but caps the allowed time at one hour if the parking meter is broken. Nearly 40,000 tickets were given last year for parking for more than one-hour at a broken parking meter. The new law, which will take effect March 1st, allows motorists to park at a broken meter for the full length of time otherwise allowed in the parking zone. If the broken meter is in a 2-, 4-, or 6- hour parking zone, then motorists can park at the broken parking meter for two, four, or six hours.

“Most people have no idea that they are only allowed to park at a broken meter for an hour, and that results in confusion, unfair parking tickets, and anger,” said Councilman Felder. “Anything we can do to cut down on the number of unfair parking tickets issued by the City is a step in the right direction.”

Councilman John Liu, chair of the Council’s Transportation Committee said, “The broken-meter rule is another example of city parking rules that are grounded in faulty premises and yet unduly penalize conscientious and law-abiding citizens. The Transportation Committee will continue to pursue changes to parking rules that serve little purpose other than to regard the driving public as a cash cow.”